Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the surrounding area Five year strategy: 2015-2020 Overview The history, changes and challenges that Why Strategic context influence what needs to be done in the next five years What will be achieved in the long-term, Vision and Mission and the overall purpose of the programme What What will have been achieved at a high Strategic Outcomes level in five years’ time – the change that will be visible to others The areas of focus for the next five years: Business Objectives the key things that the organisation will How work to deliver The roles that London Legacy Development Tiers of influence Corporation (LLDC) has and the ways in which it will use these roles – and relevant levers – to deliver the objectives How we will measure success in five years’ Measures Deliverables, impact, time standards, reputation 1 1. Why? Strategic Context 1.1. When London was awarded the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in July 2005 the world was responding not only to a vision of a spectacular summer of sport, but also to an inspirational transformation programme that would last a lifetime, ‘the regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there’1. A core part of the vision was to inspire young people and deliver a stronger future for them. The host boroughs contained some of London’s most deprived neighbourhoods and communities, and ambitious plans had long been fostered to regenerate this part of east London: to transform the post-industrial landscape while preserving local heritage, and to create stronger economic conditions and better life chances for its residents. 1.2. The financial and emotional investment from the London 2012 Games gave a huge boost to these plans and significantly changed perceptions of east London. Those boroughs (now ‘growth boroughs’) are working towards a shared goal (known as ‘convergence’) that ‘within 25 years the residents of the Boroughs that hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games will have the same social and economic chances as their neighbours across London’. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its contribution to meeting the convergence agenda was identified as the top priority in the GLA’s London Plan (to 2031). 1.3. At the same time, London needs dynamic change and evolution in order to keep its place as a truly global city which benefits the whole UK through its economy and innovations. London is a historic city that has awed, inspired, entertained and nurtured people for centuries. It is a world-class city which tops international leagues of competitiveness. 1.4. Growth in London drives jobs and growth in the rest of the UK (e.g. supplying goods and services); ‘over the last decade or so London has contributed more than £12 billion each and every year (over and above what it has received in public expenditure) to the UK’s public finances’2. But as the global centre of gravity moves eastwards London has to fight harder to remain a global player. The city faces the challenge of developing its infrastructure to serve a population that is projected to top 11 million by 2050 (and which has already surpassed the pre-1939 peak of 8.6m), while the space for new growth is constrained. 1.5. The GLA’s Infrastructure Plan for 2050 sets out the areas of need – transport, homes, schools and colleges, green space, energy and waste. While the plan identifies future high growth areas, programmes are needed already to meet these needs, ideally in a way that creates models of success to inform future development and collaboration for those areas. 1.6. The programme of change centred on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will do exactly that: its success is enabled by new transport and digital infrastructure, and it will provide new homes and jobs, attractive parkland, world class sporting facilities (including a Premier League stadium), a thriving business community, a dazzling new arts and culture cluster, and a forward-looking education and innovation presence. It will do this in a part of the city that will become a new metropolitan centre. Stratford is 1 London 2012 Bid 2 ‘Growing Together II: London and the UK Economy’ GLA September 2014 p4 2 working towards becoming a new centre of gravity for London, increasing its pull as an international destination and rebalancing the city eastwards. 1.7. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a key part of this vision, becoming fully integrated with the surrounding area and creating a weight of opportunity, success and interest that makes it a new heart of the city in spirit as well as name. 1.8. Ten years on from the successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with its vision of a generation inspired and transformed, a huge amount has already been delivered. This strategy for the next five years of the programme reflects on how that ambition has been delivered, and how the ambition will continue to grow and be delivered in the future. 1.9. One of the strengths of this programme has been its flexibility, in the way the plans for the area have evolved as the strategic challenges have developed (for example, the residential developments at East Wick and Sweetwater were accelerated by six years in response to changing local need). The plans for Olympicopolis reflect a similar evolution: a response building on the success of securing the future of the site and venues and considering whether these plans as a whole truly delivered the full potential benefit. The new plan puts education, arts and culture at the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, knitted into existing arts and culture and education provision and communities in the surrounding area. 1.10. It will help to draw visitors on from London’s top 20 attractions and out into the wealth of cultural opportunities in east London, supporting one of the key goals of the GLA’s cultural tourism vision3. Olympicopolis will also embed higher education, innovation and enterprise at the heart of the Park – by the end of this period, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park area will host five universities, three of them newly located here in the next five years. It raises the ambition for delivering more jobs and opportunities for local people, and for utterly reshaping perceptions of east London. 1.11. Olympicopolis complements similar developments elsewhere in London; only seven minutes away by high speed rail link, the Knowledge Quarter at King’s Cross brings together a similar range of institutions in collaboration, creating an axis of the knowledge economy. Making connections between these developments will see Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park help to shape a real powerhouse for London, truly transforming the lives of local people. 3 ‘Take a closer look’, A Cultural Tourism Vision for London 2015-17, GLA 3 2. What? 2.1 Vision and Mission Vision: Creating a dynamic new metropolitan centre for London Mission: To use the opportunity of the London 2012 Games and the creation of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to change the lives of people in east London and drive growth and investment in London and the UK, by developing an inspiring and innovative place where people want to live, work and visit. 2.1.1 The future for a London with a population growing towards 11 million people is one of multiple centres of gravity, and one in which national and international visitors are drawn not just to the traditional centre and West End but also – in numbers – to east London. The London Plan published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) identifies Stratford as a major centre with the potential to be a metropolitan centre. 2.1.2 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be a vital contributor to that ambition, with a key role to play in extending the benefits of that geographic heart to the boundaries of the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) areas of responsibility – Hackney Wick and Fish Island, Bromley-by-Bow, Pudding Mill, Stratford. 2.1.3 The vision of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) is that the Park will be a huge draw in itself, as somewhere to live, work and play: taking a place that was the focus of attention for billions of people round the world for a few weeks in 2012 and making it a permanently attractive destination in a way that Olympic cities have never managed before. That vision, however, must be located in the wider ambition for the area if it is to have the regeneration impact promised in the Olympic bid. 2.2 What’s been achieved so far 2.2.1 The Olympic Park was designed with legacy in mind: venues with a viable long-term use, and employment and skills schemes to ensure that local people benefitted from the opportunities in the construction phase. 2.2.2 Work on the Legacy Communities Scheme (LCS) and the future design and operation of the Park (including securing a deal for the future of the Athletes’ Village (now East Village), appointing long- term operators for most of the venues, and having Westfield open by July 2012) began well before the London 2012 Games. 2.2.3 The London Legacy Development Corporation was formed in April 2012, as a Mayoral Development Corporation to deliver the next phase. Since then, LLDC has overseen major transformation and delivered significant achievements: 4 long-term operators secured for all of the permanent venues from the Games, including the Stadium and the former Press and Broadcast Centres – a major success, meaning that there are no empty or uncertain venues remaining from the Games the physical transformation of the park from a Games-time venue into a visitor destination, with brand new parklands and playgrounds – and a varied first-year programme including sports participation, high profile sporting events, and large and small-scale public entertainment events including an arts and culture programme a strategic plan for new homes, public space and social infrastructure (schools, libraries, health and community centres), reviewed and accelerated to meet changing demand, with developers appointed for the first three neighbourhoods (Chobham Manor, East Wick and Sweetwater) and building begun at Chobham Manor, with the first homes occupied before the end of 2015 job opportunities: more than 7,000 people have worked on the Park since the end of the Games, including over 120 apprentices.